The Roma Wellbeing Study ROOSA is a study of the Finnish Roma population. The aim of the study is to improve wellbeing, inclusion, health and functional ability of the Finnish Roma.

The study produces knowledge for the implementation of the Roma policies. The National Institute for Health and Welfare conducted the Roma study as a part of the Nevo Tiija (New Era) project, coordinated by the Diaconia University of Applied Sciences, funded by the European Social Fund.

Finnish Roma is a cultural minority which is an inseparable part of the multicultural Finland. Lack of permanent housing, weak educational and employment opportunities and structural discrimination have affected the position and life of the Finnish Roma until recently.

The Finnish Roma improve their rights, wellbeing and inclusion purposefully through associations and advisory boards.

Roma Wellbeing Study has been planned and conducted in cooperating with the Finnish Roma. They took part in the implementation of the study as participants, as employees and as experts who planned and modified the contents of the study together with the research group. The data was collected in different areas of Finland.

From the total 365 participants 142 were men and 223 were women. The study included a health examination and a structured interview or a questionnaire.

The results showed that the participants had several strengths which promote inclusion in society. These strengths include community support such as substantial economical and psychological help between the next of kin, as well as supporting each other in practical matters.

Another strength was active participation in church and association activities. Key challenges were difficulties in earning livelihood, which may weaken quality of life. On the other hand, the participants of the Roma study were satisfied with their social relationships.

Key challenges in health and wellbeing were difficulties in physical functional ability among women as well as the high prevalence of self-reported chronic diseases and their risk factors.

Both women and men had several negative health behaviors, such as lack of physical exercise and high prevalence of smoking. Experiences of discrimination were also prevalent.

The results of this study can be utilized by professionals in different fields when they encounter Roma persons as their customers. The results enable to identify key strengths and challenges in health and wellbeing.

The Roma are in a vulnerable position until e.g. the rise of their educational level may also be seen in positive trends in the indicators of health and well-being. The challenges identified in this study need to be monitored and the Roma must be taken into account in future social and healthcare reforms, so that the equity of the Roma as well as other minorities will be realized.

The Roma Wellbeing Study has given a good basis to continue this positive development.

Dawn dawn, and only parted, was a sign that the 25 year old young Roma from Stara Topana should become and burn the fire in the small courtyard in front of the house, and the cauldron with the laundry should be put in to wash, wash them, then to put on the rope to dry.

The young Roma woman thought to herself: "Today, it will be as warm as yesterday, and it will dry quickly"

As soon as the water began to heat up, she began to sweep the small yard with the old broom, and in order not to raise itself up, she sprayed the earth with a tin bucket.

The fire beneath the cauldron with the laundry began and the water began to bubble. It was a sign that he had to take the old basin where the entire cauldron was laundered in the old basin.

She sat beside the trough and her hands began to rub the clothes with the soap that was between her palms. They rubbed harder with the desire to be white and washed as always, and when they were bedding them to radiate from whiteness and purity.

But suddenly in all her engagement and thinking about the whiteness of those clothes, she broke off and interrupted the child's weeping from the interior of the troubled little house.
She shivered, turned to the door, and said to herself, "Oh, baby, have you just found it crying right now? He certainly wants to get it hungry. Very early woke up. Five is the hour! "

He entered the room modestly arranged, with a mattress and a bedclothes, raised the small 1.5 year old child and took it in his arms. The child was still crying, it was obvious that he wanted milk!

He got out of the porch and sat in the yard near the trough, he approached him and began to breastfeed him! Apparently the child felt the smell of the mother's milk, and immediately the cry was replaced by silence and peaceful sucking from the mother's breast.

And so while the child calmly ate in his mother's arms, suddenly as a underground roar felt trembling on the soil itself.

The flickering and then the huge shaking turned into a chaotic uncontrollable catastrophe.

There were chaotic screams and a picture that was not forgotten. The waste houses of Stara Topaana were one by one lost from sight.
Nothing was better than the image of the young woman's house with the baby.
The picture was terrible. The walls from the interior of the small room, where the young child was sleeping 3 minutes ago, were on top of each other down on the improvised bed of mattress and tablecloth!
It was July 26, 1963, and the hour was 05:17.
My childhood cry was then crying for extended life!

So she wanted to be!

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